Chapter 10 - Beneath Saint Augustine
We entered the church after midnight.
No guns visible.
No convoy.
Just Dante, Marco, Rebecca, and me.
Saint Augustine looked smaller than I remembered.
The same dark wood.
The same candles.
The same stone saints staring down from shadowed alcoves.
My father used to sit in the third pew.
Always the third.
I walked toward it.
There were scratches underneath the seat.
Numbers.
7-1-4.
Dante frowned.
“What does that mean?”
I remembered my father teaching me simple ciphers.
Numbers for letters.
G-A-D.
“GAD?”
Marco whispered.
Then I realized.
“Not letters.”
I looked toward the hymn board.
Hymn 714.
We found the book.
Page 714 contained a handwritten note.
GABRIEL KNOWS.
Dante gripped the pew.
For eighteen years, he had believed his brother died without explaining what he had discovered.
Now Gabriel’s name was in my father’s handwriting.
A priest allowed us access to the crypts.
The Moretti family chamber smelled like stone and dust.
Gabriel’s name was carved into marble.
Dante stood before it silently.
Then he noticed the metal flower beside the plaque.
One petal was loose.
He twisted it.
A compartment opened.
Inside was a flash drive.
And a photograph.
The photograph showed four people.
Gabriel Moretti.
My father.
Victor Hale.
And a young woman I recognized from the only picture I had ever seen of my mother.
Anna Carter.
My hands shook.
“She knew all of them.”
Dante inserted the drive into an offline computer.
A ledger appeared.
Hundreds of transactions.
Dates.
Names.
Payments for murders disguised as consulting fees.
My father’s death.
Gabriel’s death.
And dozens more.
At the bottom was the authorization code.
S.A.I.N.T.
Marco stared.
“It’s a system.”
Dante shook his head.
“No.”
He pointed at the heading.
Strategic Asset Intelligence Network Trust.
SAINT.
Victor had built a network.
Bankers.
Police.
Judges.
Politicians.
And people inside criminal organizations.
Then I saw the final page.
ACTIVE CONTROLLERS.
Victor Hale’s name appeared first.
The second name made Dante sit down.
MARCO BELLINI.
I turned slowly.
Marco was standing behind us.
May you like
And his gun was already in his hand.
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